Running a Law Firm | Hiring an Associate Attorney (or other legal help)

I have reached the point where I could really use some help from another lawyer.

I knew this day would come. It is part of my business plan. Yet, I don’t really know how to hire someone and I am not sure I want to. I can see it being a total disaster. Why would I want to spend time training someone when I don’t have enough time as it is? I also don’t really need the money. I have enough. Yet, it would be really nice to have some help. Someone to rely on. Someone else to answer the calls and meet with clients. I do everything. I am pretty tired.

Pros and Cons of Hiring an Associate

(* Caveat: I don’t know that hiring an associate is a good idea. Maybe it should just be a contract employee, etc. The discussion of independent contractor versus full or part-time associate attorney is too big for this post and I am not going to think about that important delineation yet.)

I figure people like lists and they help to organize my thoughts. Therefore, let us move forward with the pros and cons of hiring someone:

Pros

  • Someone to differ tasks to
  • Someone to answer the phone
  • Someone to meet with clients
  • Someone else to generate revenue
  • Someone to share the experience of running a law practice with
  • Someone to cover you when you go on vacation, get sick, play hooky, etc
  • Someone to share some of the load

Cons

  • They want to be paid
  • They don’t know what they are doing / won’t do it right
  • They don’t do it the way you do it
  • They may not show up
  • You may have to fire them
  • Payroll tax
  • More accounting headache
  • You will likely have to take time to mentor them when you don’t want to
  • They may steal your clients and leave
  • They may just leave and not tell you
  • They may be unethical, lazy, not smart

I am sure there are other points I am missing.

Summary

In a nutshell, I think I really want to hire somebody because I think it would be fun to have a teammate. I also want to mentor somebody. I feel strongly that it is time to do that. Yet, I am also very nervous because I know being an employee is not all that fun. I never liked being an employee. I also really don’t want to manage somebody every single day.

Basically, this was a gather my thoughts post. I will think more about this later and update.

As always, I am signing off with an obligatory “who I am post”. I do this mainly to let people know I am a Minnesota probate attorney who is looking for some help, or, perhaps just a place to vent.